K-219 had a maximum dive depth of 1,029 feet and a crew of approximately 120. (North Korea’s nuclear submarines, for example, still carry their more primitive missiles in the sail.)Īt 420 feet long, with a beam of 38 feet, the Russian submarine was a long and slender nuclear-armed predator. Unlike previous Soviet missile submarines, which stored their long missiles in the sail, the Yankee class stored shorter, more compact missiles in the hull behind the sail, in a raised hump, just like American submarines. K-219 was a “Yankee”-class submarine, a NATO intelligence designation likely referencing the submarine’s uncanny resemblance to early George Washington-class U.S. A month after departing the Soviet Northern Fleet’s Gadzhiyevo submarine base, K-219 was conducting launch drills, preparing for the day it might launch its nuclear-tipped missiles at the eastern seaboard of the United States. The ballistic missile submarine was designed to carry nuclear-tipped missiles within range of the United States as part of the USSR’s nuclear deterrence. On October 3, 1986, K-219 was cruising approximately 600 miles northeast of the island of Bermuda. Adding to the tragedy were the losses of the ship’s thermonuclear warheads and nuclear reactor, which threaten to unleash an environmental disaster if they are not someday recovered. The Soviet Navy submarine K-219 caught fire and ultimately sank, killing three of her crew. One of the most dangerous incidents at sea during the Cold War took place on this day 36 years ago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Although most of the warheads and reactors are still down there, some of the warheads-and the missiles containing them-were counted as missing two years later.The sub’s thermonuclear warheads and nuclear reactors went down with the ship.On this day in 1986, a Soviet nuclear submarine off the coast of Bermuda caught fire and sank.
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